Table of Contents
What is Kanban?
Kanban’s History At a Glance
Kanban: An Essential Tool of Lean Manufacturing
The Four Principles of Kanban
Six Practices of Kanban
- Visualize the Flow of Work
- Curb WIP (Work in Progress)
- Flow Management
- Make Process Guidelines Explicit
- Implement Feedback Loops
- Improve Collaboratively and Evolve Experimentally
What is Kanban?
‘Kanban’ is a Japanese word which translates to signboard, visual card, or sign. Developed in the late 50s by Taiichi Ōno, a Japanese engineer working at Toyota, this tool is a part of the Just-In-Time (JIT) production management system. A Kanban is a signboard that helps in visualisation of work in progress and the management of the workflow depending on the actual demand in the market
In other words, Kanban is a visual signboard (physical or digital) that helps in reducing waiting time, improving quality, and eliminating waste that slows production.
Kanban’s History At a Glance
As mentioned above Kanban was developed in the 1950s at Toyota in line with the Just-in-Time philosophy. The aim of the Knaban method was to optimally manage work and inventory at every stage of production.
Toyota had an incredible productivity in comparison to its American competitors. By developing Kanban, Toyota was able to achieve an efficient, flexible, and just-in-time system that increased productivity. It also helped in keeping inventory minimal whether it was raw materials, finished products, or in-production items.
Kanban was initially designed for the manufacturing sector, but later due to its efficiency it became a project management method used in various fields from admin tasks to software development.
Kanban: An Essential Tool of Lean Manufacturing
In Lean manufacturing, Kanban (the visual board) serves as a critical tool in Lean Manufacturing by achieving the following goals:
1. Reduction of Waste:
With the help of Kanban, organizations can avoid overproduction by only producing goods/items that correspond to actual market demand. This reduces unwanted/excessive inventory which otherwise will go to waste and also reduces the costs of storage space.
2. Improvement in Quality:
The Kanban system promotes improvement in production quality. It underscores the major and minor issues and challenges that are mitigated as and when they arise.
3. Optimisation of Workflow:
Using Kanban method ensures an ongoing and balanced flow by managing work systems and preventing overload at every stage of production. This approach lowers the rate of interruptions as well as waiting time.
4. Offers a Visual Perspective:
By looking at the physical or digital signboard, manufacturers can assess visual representation of the production processes with clarity. This makes it easier for the entire production team to closely check and move with the production status.
5. Promotes Continuous Improvement:
When Kanban helps highlight problems, areas of waste elimination, and potential bottlenecks, it promotes a culture of continuous improvement inside the production department/organisation.
The Four Principles of Kanban
- Start with what you are doing now
- Agree to pursue incremental and evolutionary change
- Respect current roles, responsibilities, and job-titles
- Encourage acts of leadership at all levels
1. Start with what you are doing now
The Kanban principle emphasizes not to disrupt the current and existing workflow of the production floor shop right away. Instead of inventing or creating a new workflow, Kanban method urges to work with existing workflow and introduce any changes gradually and steadily over a period of time.
2. Agree to pursue incremental and evolutionary change
Kanban underscores the importance of gradual and incremental change instead of a change executed with force. It highlights that the team and workers must adapt to a culture of continuous improvement which enables them to adopt and implement changes naturally.
3. Respect current roles, responsibilities, and job-titles
Kanban does not impose any organisational changes by itself, it respects and values the roles and responsibilities of each worker. Kanban method helps the team to identify and collaborate over key problem areas. This helps the team to overcome any form of resistance over implementation of changes which typically plagues organisations.
4. Encourage acts of leadership at all levels
No role is too small when it comes to working with the Kanban method. Every worker, irrespective of their position in the hierarchy, is a leader in their own right who can implement and manage Kanban practices. This encourages acts of leadership at every level which ultimately benefits the organisation.
Six Practices of Kanban
Here are the six main practices of Kanban methodology:
1. Visualize the Flow of Work
The first and foremost practice of Kanban is to visualise the flow of work either on a digital or physical plane. Upon visualizing the work process, picture the current work of yours and your team.
2. Curb WIP (Work in Progress)
Kanban is a pull system in which you encourage your team to wrap up the current work before taking up any new set of work.
3. Flow Management
Visualising and managing the flow of work is the essence of Kanaban. The smooth flow will be observed if the workflow is well defined and WIP limits are set properly. This will help you gauge when something is piling up or stuck.
4. Make Process Guidelines Explicit
One must strictly define the policies and rules that govern the workflow. This includes deadlines, priorities, benchmarks, and signals for moving from one stage to the other, etc.
5. Implement Feedback Loops
Regular team meetings must be held in order to identify problem areas, deliver feedback, and reduce waste.
6. Improve Collaboratively and Evolve Experimentally
The Kanban system promotes good communication and collaboration between workers. This helps keep everyone updated on the production processes.
To wrap up, one can say that Kanban is a highly effective lean tool that is capable of transforming work efficiency. For an effective Kanban implementation, one can rely on lean consultants like https://www.ribcon.com/ who are experienced players in the industry.
